EMOTIONS ran high as Pinjarra evacuees heard of the fire fighters “arm wrestle” with a “dire” blaze that wiped out Yarloop townsite on Thursday night.
The Department of Parks and Wildlife incident controller Greg Mair told more than 100 evacuees how the fire situation had changed “and not for the better” since Thursday afternoon’s meeting.
“The fires are not going to stop with this bit of thundery rain,” he said.
Mr Mair was unable to confirm how many buildings had been lost in Yarloop but did say the 100 residents who were stuck in the town since Thursday night had found a safe passage out with police.
At the second community meeting since the fires started on Wednesday morning Mr Mair said despite magnificent efforts by the fire crews “we are a long way from out of the woods.”
The fire is now threatening Cookernup and Harvey with police door knocking on Harvey doors requesting people leave.
“Outskirts to the north and west of Harvey is pastoral country that has irrigation so this is a lesser concern, we have a greater chance of stopping the fire in that area but a fire in the north east is the greatest threat for Harvey,” he said.
“If you can leave, leave to the south.”
Mr Mair said it was hard to contain the fire, which had decimated more than 55,000 hectares of land, in the south as they were still using resources to fight it in the north.
“We have been discussing bringing in fire fighters from eastern states as some of our fire fighters have been on the ground for more than 30 hours,” he said.
After listening to complaints at yesterday’s meeting from Coolup residents who were blocked out of their properties Mr Mair said DPAW was consideringopening the road blocks to them.
“We are working on a plan to enable residents back in to either stay and defend their properties or gather belongings and leave again,” he said.
“Nothing has been finalised yet.”
Mr Mair confirmed no lives had been lost after the police said the three people reported missing had been found.
Waroona residents asked police why more wasn’t being done to protect their properties from alleged looting.
A woman said a group had been driving off-road mortorbikes in the town and illegally entering properties.
The police offcer said he would not put his officers in danger to protect the properties.
With Western Power reporting 4200 people still with out power Waroona residents are not allowed to return home.
The South West and Forest Highways are still closed with Mr Mair unable to say when they will reopen.
“I can’t give a timeframe because we still have a very active fire,” he said.
Another community meeting will be held at the Pinjarra evacuation centre at 2pm on Saturday.
